Gautam,
Clinical gem. So obvious, but I had never thought of it! Have you
written it up? Short article ?Lesson of the week ? Pre-hospital
journal?
Tim.
> The body straps
> were undone before the blocks / tapes. Punter vomits, well-meaning
> staff quickly tip board to side to allow free flow of vomit away from
> airway whilst turning suction on. Punter's floppy body ends up prone
> on trolley having slid off board, his head still firmly fixed to now
> vertical board. You can imagine the stress on his neck. Fortunately he
> was one of the huge majority who DIDN'T have a neck injury (he made a
> full recovery, discharged next day). One of the Paramedic work-based
> trainers was in the dept. and was rightly horrified at the potential
> risks involved (he bought the incident to my attention). Since then we
> have always taken neck tapes / blocks off before body straps.
>
Timothy J Coats MD FRCS FFAEM
Senior Lecturer in Accident and Emergency / Pre-Hospital Care
Royal London Hospital, UK.
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